Business Sense on preexisting conditions. With fewer ways to limit their liability, the cost of coverage goes up each year. Some other important drivers of cost increases can be related to rising administrative and drug costs.
Can health benefits be a tool for employee recruitment and retention?
Most landscape companies don’t offer employees any health benefits. Employers can gain a competitive edge simply by offering benefits to their employees. Employees are looking to their employers to help them secure affordable healthcare. In 2018, Forbes published an article outlining the connections between employee benefits and employee health, engagement and loyalty. Employees often value the quality of their benefits as much or more than their salary. Similarly, employees are more likely to stay with an employer that offers benefits because they depend on their employer for quality coverage. One of the most exciting developments in recent years has been the ability to use alternative funding strategies to help manage the costs of health insurance. Alternative or self-funding strategies have commonly only been available to very large companies but are now available to many small businesses. Self-funding solutions may be available for your company with as few as four participating employees. If you are an employer, investigate securing a health insurance plan for your company. If you are an employee, talk to your employer about options; if they do offer a plan, then be sure to participate. Did you know that insurance premium rates tend to be cheaper for employer plans than for individual plans? If you already offer a plan, then you are ahead of the curve. It may be well worth your time to review your plan design with a broker to make sure you are getting good value and have a plan that aligns to your company’s unique needs. If you do not have a company benefit plan, reach out to a trusted broker to learn more about how to get started. |CG
Why is it so expensive?
Many of us can remember a time when you went to the doctor for a service, asked what the service would cost, and were told that they wouldn’t know until they submitted your claim to your insurance. Essentially, we have a healthcare system where we consume the product or service before we know what the bill will be. Almost every insurance plan offers different levels of coverage and payment structures, so we don’t have much transparency on the actual costs of products and services.
This makes “cost controls” almost impossible to institute. Because the baseline for costs is so obscure, it is difficult for an insurance company to assess their potential exposure to paying claims, so they must estimate high to make sure they can cover all incurred claims. Related to this “exposure,” is a requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires insurance companies to pay claims to an unlimited dollar amount and cannot discriminate
—Kevin Wood is a Benefits Consultant with Quandary Insurance. March/April 2019 Colorado Green
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